Landscape,Religion and Folk Art in Mithila: An Indian Cultural Region

Folk art portrays aspects of cultural geography that have been frequently ignored. Important aspects of the cultural geography of Mithila arc illustrated through folk paintings and songs. By understanding the symbolism in folk art, cultural geographers can discover fresh meanings in landscapes and culture, thus gaining a deeper knowledge of the aspirations and behavior of a specific group.     

Death by Water: Boats and Footprints in the Rock Art of Western Sweden

This paper considers two of the key images in the Bronze Age rock carvings of Bohuslän in relation to the wider landscape. It compares the distribution of cairns on islands off the west coast of Sweden with that of similar monuments on low hills surrounded by drawings of boats. These are often in areas which had previously been occupied by the sea. Perhaps the drawings of boats evoked an expanse of water separating the world of the living from the burial places of the dead. If so, the lines of footprints leading between these two areas may also refer to the passage between life and death.     

Political iconoclasm: the destruction of Eccleshall Castle during the English Civil Wars

SUMMARY: The mid 17th century in the British Isles was dominated by a period of political and religious turmoil known as the English Civil Wars. The two sides, Royalist and Parliamentarian, became associated with very different forms of Christianity, with the latter being identified with Puritanism, an extremely austere religion whose supporters became associated with iconoclasm. However, this paper explores the motivations for the damage caused at the Bishop of Lichfield’s palace at Eccleshall, Staffordshire, and suggests its destruction was caused by politics rather than religion, thus demonstrating the need for a more nuanced examination of slighting during this turbulent time.     

Introduction: Danto and His Critics: After the End of Art and Art History

In Bielefeld, Germany in April, 1997 an author conference was devoted to Arthur C. Danto's 1995 Mellon Lectures After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History (Princeton,1997). This essay provides an introduction to seven essays given at that conference and expanded for this Theme Issue of History and Theory . Danto presented his view of the nature of art in The Transfiguration of the Commonplace (1981). He then added in the Mellon lectures a sociological perspective on the current situation of the visual arts, and an Hegelian historiography. The history of art has ended, Danto claims, and we now live in a posthistorical era. Since in his well-known book on historiography, Analytical Philosophy of History (1965), Danto is unsympathetic to Hegel's speculative ways of thinking about history, his adaptation of this Hegelian framework is surprising. Danto's strategy in After the End of Art is best understood by grasping the way in which he transformed the purely philosophical account of The Transfiguration into a historical account. Recognizing that his philosophical analysis provided a good way of explaining the development of art in the modern period, Danto radically changed the context of his argument. In this process, he opened up discussion of some serious but as yet unanswered questions about his original thesis, and about the plausibility of Hegel's claim that the history of art has ended.
Hegel . . . did not declare that modern art had ended or would disintegrate. . . . his attitude towards future art was optimistic, not pessimistic. . . . According to his dialectic . . . art . . . has no end but will evolve forever with time.     

闽中民俗艺术奇葩──莆田民间版画采风纪实

文章在民间采风的基础上,对大量莆田民间版画作了初步的归纳,指出莆田民间版画虽内容多封建色彩,但在制作、印刷、用色等诸多方面对当今的版画创作仍具有借鉴和参考价值。     

Archaeological,Historical, and Ethnographic Approaches to the Study of Sewn Boats: past,present, and future

Sewn‐plank vessels have been a pervasive form of ship construction since antiquity. This paper provides an introductory overview of the current state of the field of sewn‐plank studies, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean. It describes the basic function of sewn‐plank techniques, and then discusses textual references and historical approaches to the topic. The relevant archaeological evidence is reviewed, and prior ethnographic work relating to the topic is outlined. It summarizes numerous experimental sewn‐plank reconstructions that have been undertaken and concludes with a discussion of the current directions of the field and suggestions for the future.     

高原山花正烂漫——青海民间剪纸艺术漫谈

青海地处青藏高原,特独的高原地理环境孕育了青海独具特色的高原文化和民间艺术,多彩的民族民间文化,给生活在高原上的人们增添了无穷的快乐和生活情趣,青海民间剪纸就是其中的一枝鲜花,她开放在高原,在高原沃土上扎根成长。     

Sheffield Castle and The Aftermath of The English Civil War

The demolition of castles following the English Civil War is often seen as an inevitable consequence of the conflict, with their slighting often being ascribed to a need to prevent further bloodshed and punish the ruling elite. However, recent studies have demonstrated that the destruction of elite buildings during this period was far from straightforward, and this complexity is reflected in the methodology employed to damage them. At Sheffield, so extensive was this damage that, less than a century later, not a trace remained of what had once been one of the largest castles in South Yorkshire. Whilst little remains of the building itself, the rare survival of a set of demolition accounts, alongside a large number of other sources including personal correspondence, estate rentals and town records, means it is possible to explore in great detail the circumstances of the castle’s slighting. Through these a far more nuanced picture of civil conflict emerges with the castle’s destruction taking place within a complicated dialogue between the Lord of the Manor, Parliament’s officials and the inhabitants of Sheffield themselves.     

Isotopic Investigation of Animal Husbandry in the Welsh and English Periods at Dryslwyn Castle,Carmarthenshire, Wales

Dryslwyn Castle in southwest Wales was founded by a Welsh lord in the AD 1220s, captured by the English in 1287, and declined from c.1407 until it was abandoned c.1450. In contrast to historical evidence for changes in procurement of meat, previous zooarchaeological work has suggested that throughout these three periods, there was no change in the supply of animals. We have analysed the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of 20 cattle and 25 pigs from the Castle to further test this hypothesis. Our results show that there was no detectable change in the source of supply of cattle to the Castle when it passed from Welsh to English control, though differences in isotope ratios compared to cattle from York suggest that such changes might well be detectable. For pigs, there was an increase in carbon isotope ratios in the English period and a reversion to the previous values in the decline period, which is interpreted as reflecting a change in diet of the pigs from woodland to more open environments. Such a change is anticipated locally due to human population pressure in the English period, but could also reflect a change in the region of supply. This paper shows that there is potential for developing isotope analyses as part of the study of medieval husbandry. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Urban Order: An Introduction to Cities, Culture, and Power

Book reviewed in this article:
The Golden Age Illusion: Rethinking Postwar Capitalism by MICHAEL J. WEBBER and DAVID L. RIGBY, Guilford Press, New York and London
Climate Change 1995 - The Science of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by J.T. HOUGHTON, L.G. MEIRA FILHO, B.A. CALLANDER, N. HARRIS, A. KATTENBERG, and K. MASKELL, Cambridge University Press,
Climate Change 1995 - Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigation of Climate Change: Scientific-Technical Analyses: Contribution of Working Group II to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by R.T. WATSON, M.C. ZINYOWERA, and R.H. MOSS
Climate Change 1995 - Economic and Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change edited by J.P. BRUCE, H. LEE, and E.F. HAITES
'As Their Natural Resources Fail': Native Peoples and the Economic History of Northern Manitoba, 1870–1930 by FRANK TOUGH, UBC Press, Vancouver
Atlas historique du Québec: le pays laurentien au XIX^e siècle - les morphologies de base par SERGE COURVILLE, JEAN-CLAUDE ROBERT et NORMAND SÉGUIN
Gender, Work, and Space by SUSAN HANSON and GERALDINE PRATT, Routledge, London and New York, 1995
The Countryside Ideal: Anglo-American Images of Landscape by Michael Bunce, Routledge, London and New York, 1994     

务川、道真仡佬族民间雕刻艺术考察研究

务川、道真仡佬族民间雕刻有着广泛的存在,图案丰富,线条流畅,造型饱满,表达了仡佬族民族审美理想和民俗文化心理,承载着丰厚的民族文化内涵,具有深厚的民族文化价值。     

An Altar from the Castle Chapel of Atlit and its Journey to the Church of all Hallows by the Tower,London

An altar currently positioned in the columbarium of the Church of All Hallows by the Tower, London, was thought to have originated from the Templar castle of Atlit. However, lack of relevant documentation resulted in this being regarded as a myth rather than a genuine piece of history. To add confusion, a Maltese Cross, associated with the Hospitaller Order of St John, was carved on the front of the altar's table top—the mensa.

Recently found documents reveal how this limestone altar was brought from the thirteenth-century Templar castle of Atlit and came into the possession of the church.